Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-26
The IRISH lAuNIlNG CAR.
In American Corr respondents Amusing
Experience I'm Dublin.

An American Corr respondents Amusing
Experience I'm Dublin.
The jaunting car is the great feature OF
street life iii Dublin. 1t is the popular
method Of conveyance. 1t will hold two
people on each side besides the driver.
The regular fare for their use is two shil.
lings for the first hour and eighteen pence
for the next. You learn this after you
have paid all kinds Of prices. These
%Jaunting car drivers are perfectly merci-
less in their charges unless you make a
bargain with them beforehond. No mat
ter how liberal you may think you are in
paying them, these drivers always look as
reproachfully at you as il you were at
tempting to rob them.
The Irish drivers In the streets of Dub
lin are the most wreckless OF any l rave
ever seen. Their horses are tough and
wiry, and are always driven nearly on the
dead run. At the slightest opportunity
the driver forces his horse into a gallop.
As the streets are very uneven and badly
paved, riding on a jaunting car gives
much more exercise than ordinary horse
back riding. The first driver / had
overcharged me in such a stupendous
way that he could not keep his face
straight when he named his price. Then,
after roaring at his own a~varice, he
calmly lowered the price himself and an
nounced that he would take SO much. l
paid it to him, telling him that | knew it
was double his fare. After he had re-
ceived it he burst out in another roar
"You are right; it is about double, but it
isn't every day we get a chance and
then went off in perfect commissions Of
amusement over his successful strike at
the stranger.
The excessive vclubility of the drivers is
marvellous. They won't drive you well
unless you let them talk. They get sulky
directly and make it up by extra charges.
They are much better natured to each
other than the English cabbies. The first
night l was out my driver ran the shafts
of his car full tilt into the back Of another
car. | thought for q moment that he
would take the back of the head car off.
But he backed his horse off, and when the
driver he had run into looked angrily back
at him he said: "Look ahead Of you,m my boy.
Never look behind when you are driving"
And with this he swung out to the right
and passed his friends wheel by about a
quarter of an inch; going on the dead
bolt down Sackville street. The aggrieved
fellow grinned at the assurance of his
associate and stopped looking behind.
The last man ! had continually called
my attention to the beautiful black Irish
mare attached to his car. He told me
she could make ten miles an hour day in
and day out for years. He would let her
go for sixty guineas. pretended to mis-
understand and said i did not think she
was worth six guineas. This made my
driver indignant, and he spent the next
fifteen or twenty minutes in trying to tip
me off, by whirling suddenly around
corners, or spinning his car along on one
wheel down some dark street or slippery
lane. But yet on the whole they were so
much more interesting and amusing han
the English cabbies, because they met
every possible situation with such wit
and with such assurance. Wednesday
afternoon ! asked one car driver how
much he would charge TO drive me out to
the horse show and back, about a mile dis
tant. He promptly responded half a
guinea, without n blink. The next man
was ready to go for two shillings. This
extraordinary drop did not decompose the
first driver. He stepped forward as il |
were going with him as n matter of course,
saying in the most contemptuous way, in
will not be able to give you such a drive
as / will AS / was not engaged at that
particular time in buying any fanciful
Of superior Irish driving at n high
class figure l went with the two shilling
mani. G. Crawford in New York
World,